Prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in the European Region: a progress report – This new WHO report reveals gaps and challenges faced in the prevention and control of NCDs, but also highlights examples of innovation in contextualization of interventions within various countries in the region. Click here to download the report.

Promoting health, preventing disease: is there an economic case? New Policy Summary out now – The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies has published a Policy Summary which reviews some of the economic arguments for investing in health promotion and non-communicable disease prevention. It argues that there is a substantial evidence base on the effectiveness of a wide range of actions, addressing some of the main risk factors to health including tobacco and alcohol consumption, and the impacts of diet and patterns of physical activity. Click here to download the policy summary.

Tackling cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes in 53 countries: health ministers meet in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan – Ministers of 35 European Member States gathered together for the WHO European Ministerial Conference on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases, which was held on 3 and 4 December. Outcomes of the meeting include the adoption of the Ashgabat Declaration, which commits signatories to accelerate their efforts to fully implement the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Find out more.

EU Member States adopt Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme - With a budget of nearly EUR 80 billion euro over seven years, Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU research programme yet, and one of the biggest publicly funded worldwide. Built on three pillars – Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership and Societal Challenges - it will fund all types of activities, from frontier science to close-to-market innovation. Find out more. 

European Council Conclusions on Sustainable Health Systems – Unanimously adopted by Member States on 10 December, the conclusions acknowledge the core role of health for economic growth and stress the importance of the principles of solidarity, universal access to health care and the horizontal principle “health in all policies”. Read more.

Patient safety and quality of care: European Commission launches public consultation – The consultation aims to assess the implementation of the 2009 Recommendation on patient safety as well as identify areas not covered by the Recommendation for further improvement. Results of this consultation will contribute to the reflection on the future of EU policies on patient safety and quality of care. The consultation is open 28 February 2014. For more information and fill in a questionnaire, click here. 

Greece announces priorities for its EU Presidency – Greece will hold the Presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2014. Legislative priorities of the Greek Presidency in the field of health will include issues related to tobacco products, clinical trials, pharmacovigilance fees and transparency directive, while the Presidency's primary aim is to see significant progress on the issue of medical devices. Non-Legislative priorities will include the economic crisis and its impact on healthcare and health systems, migration and public health, nutrition and physical activity, and eHealth and health innovation. Find out more.

  Upcoming Events

 • Equity Action – Joint Action on Health Inequalities, Final Conference, 23 January 2014, Brussels: the conference aims to identify opportunities and priorities for action in addressing health inequalities. Read more.

 • 7th International Conference on Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes, 5-8 February 2014, Vienna: Learn about the latest technological advances in treatment of diabetes and related conditions. Find out more. 

 • EASD Diabetes Technology Conference, 26-27 February 2014, Dusseldorf: the event aims to encourage further research, better scientific knowledge and a more secure, safe and user orientated approach to the growing medical device dependency in diabetes treatment. Find out more.

 Policy Puzzle readership survey: have your say! – In 2014, the European Coalition for Diabetes will publish the 4th Edition of the Policy Puzzle. In order to improve the publication and its content, we are conducting a readership survey on the 3rd edition of the Policy Puzzle published in 2011.

The survey takes only 10 minutes to complete and is available here. It is also available in a Word Document. Please send the filled in questionnaires back to Elodie Besnier at Elodie@idf-europe.org by the end of first week of January 2014 latest.

IDF Europe 2014 Youth Leadership Camp: Call for Venue – IDF Europe wishes to continue working closely with Member Associations on the 4th edition of its Youth Leadership Camp to be held next Summer.

If your association is interested in hosting the camp as a joint initiative with IDF Europe, and you have an appropriate venue to propose, fill in the camp venue application form (available in both PDF and Word document format) and return to Katie Gallagher at Katie.Gallagher@idf-europe.org by 30 January 2014 latest.